Although the growing awareness of the need for improved reliability security measures in essentially every type of facility has stimulated the introduction of a variety of new security access products, many installations continue to rely on standard hardware components, such as mechanical padlocks and the like, for locking barrier access closures, such as gates and doors. Unfortunately, it is a well established statistic that individuals who are permitted access to these components sometimes fail to properly lock the barrier access closure. Not only does this result in a breach of security, but in many instances there is no way to determine who is responsible for the failure, in order that the problem can be corrected. This problem is particularly acute at locations where a breach of security has the potential for significant devastating consequences to the public.
This concern has resulted in government agencies which oversee such installations issuing stricter security directives. In the case of an airport as a non-limiting example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued upgraded regulations regarding access to areas well outside of a public terminal area, especially along the airport's a perimeter fence barrier. Now even though airports have begun substantial upgrades of existing security access mechanisms, including improved lock hardware, installing and maintaining electrical power and communication links that would allow centralized monitoring and control of remote (perimeter runway fence) gate access points, yet still allow brute force gate breach by emergency vehicles, such as fire/crash trucks, so as to fully comply with FAA safety and security directives is currently prohibitively expensive.